Griptonite Games: 3DS is a way to "bring something special" back to gamers

JC Connors, studio head at Foundation 9's Griptonite Games, has said third-party publishers are taking Nintendo "a lot more seriously", thanks in part to 3DS.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Connors said the handheld will bring almost "console-level quality" titles to the system, something in his opinion developers couldn't with the original DS.

"Everyone looked at the 3DS with just how powerful it was, and the new features, the analog stick and the 3D, as an opportunity to bring almost console-level quality games to this handheld because they could," he said. "On the DS, you really couldn't, and that's something that we've learned over the last six months.

"You can't treat this machine as just a DS plus. You almost have to treat it like a console, because many of the things it can do are things that consoles can do. So, you know, why not bring a more 'gamer' experience to that platform, if it can do really well with it?"

Connors said since a lot of casual DS games moved on to the mobile market, developers see 3DS as a way to "bring something special" back to gamers.

"I think the third-party publishers are taking this a lot more seriously," he said. "Certainly, the video game market has changed a lot over the last year.

"You know, a lot of the casual games that really bombarded the DS marketplace have now moved onto other platforms like the iPhone, so I think everyone looks at this as an opportunity to kind of bring something special back to the gamers."

Nintendo 3DS is out sometime before March 2011, and surely the marketing for it will be sorted by then.